A Savior
by bloodybrill
Summary: He watched over her when she was tormented.


I do not own anything related to Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling owns everything like that.

"Go back to whatever hole in the ground you came from, Loony!" the Slytherin sixth year shouted as he shoved past the blonde fourth year.

Luna picked up her bag which had been pushed off of her shoulder and she placed her wand back behind her ear. Students were laughing at the odd girl whose radish earrings were visible; she also had pieces of string tied around her hand to distract the Nargles. She checked her pockets and took out the fake Galleon. The edges were a dull gold; it hadnt glowed in over a week. She checked it every day, usually more than once as she waited to be informed of the next D.A. meeting.

"Hey, Loony!" a high voice called from behind Luna.

She turned around and saw a group of girls giggling at her. The one who had spoken was Romilda Vane. The girl had been rude to Luna since last year and she did whatever she could to annoy the blonde. Luna shot the girls a small smile and walked away, laughs followed her through the halls.

Neville watched as Luna Lovegood walked down the hall, her long, pale blonde hair swung slightly with each light step she took. He hated how Luna was treated by everyone in the school but he couldn't do anything.

The Gryffindor had started watching Luna after one of the D.A. meetings. Neville had seen Luna get tripped by an older boy when she was walking by. Neville had hurried over to help her. He had expected Luna to be upset; he did not expect to see a small smile on her pale pink lips as she stood up.

"I hate when that happens," she had chuckled as she straightened her robes. "It seems to happen often, though."

"Luna, people just trip you for no reason?" Neville asked in shock. How could anyone do that to her?

"Sometimes."

"Go to a teacher!" he told her but she just shook her head.

"I don't mind. It doesn't hurt and if I tell one of the teachers it will just cause problems."

"But-"

"Thank you for the help, Neville." Luna smiled warmly at the boy before walking off towards her common room.

Since that happened Neville kept an eye out for Luna when he walked through the halls. If he saw someone hurt Luna he reported it to a teacher, usually Professor McGonagall who gave Neville a swift nod before leaving the room to look for the student. He was never accused of telling a teacher which Neville was thankful for, he had enough problems already without having enemies.

Neville followed Luna down the hall; she was heading towards the Great Hall for lunch where nothing really bad ever happened to her. Occasionally someone would knock her goblet of pumpkin juice into her lap or they would hover extra food onto her plate but she was never hurt. That was the worst thing for Neville to see because Luna never fought back.

If Luna was knocked down on purpose she just picked up whatever fell and walked away. When her books were pulled from her hands or her hair was yanked from behind she just fixed what was disturbed and continued on her way. Neville wanted to go help the poor girl but he couldn't find the courage.

_Some Gryffindor you are_, he said to himself whenever he watched something happen.

One day after a third year Slytherin had almost made Luna fall down the stairs Neville found Ginny in the common room and asked her what Luna did after everything happened.

"Does she even care?" he had asked. His frustrated tone of voice and the way he paced in front of the chair caused a few Gryffindors who sat close by to stare at him.

Ginny had looked up at Neville, her brown eyes hard. "Of course she cares. She is human, Neville. I've talked to her a few times when she was upset. She doesn't like that she's treated this way just because of who she is but she won't change."

"Why not? If that would make everyone leave her alone then why shouldn't she change?"

"Because that's not who she is. Luna is eccentric and she always will be, she will always believe in those creatures her father tells her about, and she'll go around being the odd girl she is. Nothing will change her. I don't think she should change," Ginny said nonchalantly.

"You don't?"

"No," she shrugged. "Once people grow up and realize that they're idiots for picking on her she'll be fine."

Neville had just shaken his head at Ginny. The students at Hogwarts would never leave Luna alone; they had too much fun with it.

Luna entered the Great Hall and went over to the Ravenclaw table. Neville watched as she sat down at the end and began to fill her plate with lunch then he too entered the large room.

When he sat down at the Gryffindor table near Dean and Seamus he lost sight of Luna. He didn't like that for some reason, there was just a feeling inside of him but he ignore it. Most of the teachers were in the room and if anything went wrong at least one of them would notice.

Neville was speaking with Dean about the Herbology lesson they had the previous day when a yelp of pain came from the middle of the room. The Great Hall became silent and almost every head turned towards the noise. Seamus stood up as an attempt to get a look at what was happening.

"That Lovegood girl just ran out of here," he commented when he sat down.

"Luna?" Neville asked, his heart pounding. When he heard the cry of pain he knew it was her.

"Yeah, I guess."

Neville stood up and, ignoring the calls from his friends, left the Great Hall in a hurry. When he was out of the room and in the Entrance Hall he tried to think of where Luna would go. He didn't know where the Ravenclaw tower was and it was too cold for her to go out on the grounds. The library was too public. And then Neville figured it out, the best place to be alone in Hogwarts was the Room of Requirements. He set off immediately.

When he came to the room he thought of the best way to find out where Luna was. After a moment he tried his sentence.

_I need to find where Luna Lovegood is._ _I need to find where Luna Lovegood is._ _I need to find where Luna Lovegood is._

It was the best way he could ask the wall as he paced in front of it. Neville was amazed when a door appeared in front of him. Tentatively, he grabbed the doorknob and twisted it.

Neville stepped into the room where the D.A. met. Everything was the same from the bookcases to the Dark Detectors and silk cushions on the ground. The one main difference about the room was that when the D.A. was in the room everyone was usually energetic, Luna, who sat in the middle of the floor with her knees hugged close to her chest, looked so defeated.

Her head came up when the door snapped shut. Neville caught a glance at the tears that fell down Lunas cheeks before her hand came up and wiped them away.

"Oh, hello, Neville," she greeted him in a weak voice. "I'm sorry that you had to see me like this."

"Don't apologize, Luna." Neville said, he was so shocked that she would apologize to him after what had happened to her. "What happened?"

"Someone was practicing a hover charm on a goblet and it...hit my head. I suppose it was an accident but it just hurt. I shouldn't be making such a big deal about it."

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?" she asked, her head moving to the side. She stared up at Neville with her large pale eyes.

"Why don't you blame people for what they do? I've seen how people treat you, why don't you just stand up for yourself?"

"It's much easier to just ignore them."

"But they could leave you alone!"

Luna chuckled humorlessly. "No," she said, lightly shaking her head. "I don't think they would. I'm fine, Neville, thank you for your concern, though."

"Luna," Neville groaned, rubbing his temple. He sat next to her. "I can't just stand by and watch you get hurt anymore."

"Why do you say that?"

"What?"

"Say that you can't watch me get hurt anymore. You've been watching me?"

"I-well-I-" Neville sputtered, it didn't help that Luna continued to stare at him. "It's just because if anything really bad happened I wanted to help and I-"

"That's very sweet of you. Thank you." She reached over and hugged Neville.

His face was bright red as he hugged Luna back.

"It's nice to know that I have an ally here."

"Even better," he said, grateful that the hug was over. It had been too awkward for him. "You have a friend."

Luna smiled brightly. She had stopped crying and she looked happier than she had during the time that Neville had been there. "A friend," she nodded at the word. "That sounds nice."

"Do you want to go back down to the Great Hall? You can just grab some food and we can find somewhere peaceful to eat."

"That would be nice."

Neville stood up and held his hand out for Luna to take. They left the Room of Requirements together. Neville looked down at Luna. He would no longer look after her from afar, from now on he was going to be by her side.


End file.
